<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Yves HermanProtesters shelter behind a caravan as Belgian riot police uses water canons during clashes as farmers and dairy farmers from all over Europe take part in a demonstration outside an European Union farm ministers emergency meeting at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, September 7, 2015.</div></div></div>Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Wednesday.1. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1549225/migration-crisis-eu-quota-plans-to-be-unveiled">announce proposals to resettle more than 120,000 refugees </a>among European nations. 2. Former <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/ap-judge-orders-ex-guatemalan-president-jailed-on-fraud-charge-2015-9">Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina on Tuesday was jailed</a> on charges of fraud, conspiracy, and bribery in connection with a customs corruption scandal. 3. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/photos-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-the-longest-reigning-monarch-2015-9">Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday becomes Britain's longest-reigning monarch</a>, surpassing Queen Victoria, having been on the throne for a total of 63 years, seven months, and two days.4. A video published Tuesday shows a <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/camerawoman-tripping-refugee-in-hungary-2015-9">camerawoman tripping a refugee who is carrying a child and running from the police</a> after hundreds of migrants broke out from a registration camp in Hungary.5. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/nikkei-rips-higher-september-9-2015-9">Asian markets ripped higher on Wednesday following gains in the US and Europe</a>, a global rally that the Financial Times attributes to an article posted Tuesday night from China's Ministry of Finance that said it would enact "stronger proactive fiscal policy."6. Samsung r<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/samsung-job-cuts-10-percent-2015-9">eportedly plans to cut 10% of staff at its South Korean headquarters</a>, or around 10,000 employees.7. Australia said it will take in an <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-australia-to-take-12000-extra-refugees-from-syria-iraq-pm-2015-9">extra 12,000 refugees from conflicts in Syria and Iraq</a>.8. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/united-airlines-ceo-has-resigned-2015-9">United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek resigned</a> from the company on Tuesday amid a federal probe involving airport authorities that operate airports in New York and New Jersey.9. The two men who said they found a lost World War II-era Nazi ghost train in Poland have identified themselves and <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-2-men-who-claim-they-found-a-nazi-ghost-train-2015-9">say they have "irrefutable proof of its existence." </a>10. The <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-british-airways-plane-catches-fire-in-las-vegas-two-injured-2015-9">engine of a British Airways plane caught fire on the runway of a Las Vegas airport</a>, forcing the evacuation of passengers and injuring at least two people.And finally ...<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/sam-smith-james-bond">Four-time Grammy winner Sam Smith will sing the new James Bond theme song. </a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/1998-mclaren-f1-auction-15-million-dollars-2015-6">This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Rsc3hodTqM0OE0pn7eL8MJ-yolA-SZHN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The 10 most important things in the world right now

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Francois LenoirA Belgian dairy farmer pours milk from a truck during a protest against low milk prices at the milk processing factory Corman in Bethane near Liege, Belgium, July 30, 2015.</div></div></div>A former Goldman Sachs partner warned the bank to resist the pressure to "milk" Libya's $60 billion (£42 billion) sovereign wealth fund in an email in 2008.The email was cited in court by the Libyan Investment Authority's lawyer, Roger Masefield QC, in summing up the fund's case against Goldman Sachs.The Libyan Investment Authority claims it lost more than $1 billion (£750 million) on nine trades executed by Goldman Sachs in 2008 on banks such as Citigroup and UniCredit, as well as the French company EDF.The bank made more than $200 million in profit on the trades, exploiting the LIA's relative financial naivety, according to the LIA's lawyers."The biggest risk now is the natural internal pressure to 'milk' Libya," Driss Ben-Brahim, a former Goldman Sachs partner covering Libya, said in the internal email sent in July 2008 before he left the firm to join GLG."I expect everyone and his brother at GS to be visiting them with one brilliant idea after another, some partners will want to prove they can print business and won't have the instruments of trust," Ben-Brahim continued."Don't push hard to do big deals - not now - it has risk of backfiring. Do large delta 1 trades, avoid as much as possible complicated derivatives," Ben-Brahim said. His email also added, "I will always use my own judgment and be fair to GS. I don't believe in all GS stands for but for most of what GS stands for. I expect to be a good ambassador even after I have left."Goldman Sachs denied the claims. "The evidence at trial has confirmed the frailty of the LIA's highly ambitious case, and has come nowhere near establishing a case of undue influence or unconscionable bargain," a spokesman for the bank said in an email. "We have always disputed the LIA's claim that it was financially illiterate and it is clear that they understood the disputed trades and entered into them of their own volition."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS / Brendan Mcdermid</div></div></div>The LIA's lawyer said the fact that Goldman Sachs hadn't called Ben-Brahim as a witness strengthened the Libyan fund's case."They almost certainly explain why Goldman Sachs has not called Mr. Ben-Brahim to give evidence, because Mr. Ben-Brahim could not in all honesty have supported Goldman Sachs's pleaded case that the LIA was sophisticated and capable of understanding the disputed trades," Masefield said.Edey also read excerpts of emails from former Goldman Sachs Partner Driss Ben-Brahim to Youssef Kabbaj, a former Goldman Sachs salesman embedded with the LIA, that said: "Stay super-close to the client on a daily basis. Teach them, train them, dine them. You need to own this client, it's a once in a career opportunity."Goldman Sachs became close to the LIA after Kabbaj was embedded within the organisation in 2007. Kabbaj befriended Haitem Zarti, the younger brother of a senior LIA official.The seven-week long trial has entered its final week in London. In closing arguments, Goldman Sachs will point to the fact that the LIA was offered the opportunity to restructure or unwind the trades before taking heavy losses, but chose not too.Lawyers for the bank will also highlight one of the LIA's witnesses, Abdulfatah Enaami, has been accused of taking bribes in a separate dispute, according to documents presented to the judge. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/regret-avoidance-selling-lottery-tickets-mega-millions-2016-7">We tested an economic theory by trying to buy people's lottery tickets for much more than they paid</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VlOTU2MDE6tCw0GqSor_wM7L40EQEVfv" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Goldman Sachs email shows partner warned against trying to 'milk' Libya in 2008

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table lead-image-large"><div><div class="image on-image">Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty ImagesJonathan Safran Foer speaks at the Rome Film Fest, October 2018.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Jonathan Safran Foer's new nonfiction book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-are-the-Weather/dp/0241405955/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=">"We Are the Weather,"</a> is tackling climate change, starting with breakfast and lunch.</li><li>In a phone interview with Business Insider, Foer discussed daily habits, collective action, and the turning point in the fight against climate change.</li><li>Foer's book has come out at a time when <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49238749">vegetarianism has been gaining traction</a> as a way to curb climate change - Tuesday also marks <a href="https://worldvegetarianday.navs-online.org/about/about-wvd/">World Vegetarian Day</a>, an annual event to kick off Vegetarian Awareness Month.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul>Jonathan Safran Foer is a cataloger of catastrophe.In his first novel, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Illuminated-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0544484002/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=">"Everything Is Illuminated,"</a> a fictionalized version of the author tracks his family history to a Jewish Ukrainian shtetl destroyed by Nazis. In his next novel, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Extremely-Incredibly-Close-Jonathan-Safran/dp/0618711651/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=">"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,"</a> a boy comes to terms with the death of his father during 9/11. Now, Foer is taking on a more eminent existential crisis: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/climate-change">climate change</a>.The subheading for Foer's new nonfiction book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-are-the-Weather/dp/0241405955/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=">"We Are the Weather,"</a> is "Saving the planet begins at breakfast." For his own part, Foer is skipping all animal products for breakfast and lunch, and he suggests everyone do the same.For the month of October, many others are planning to cut out meat. Tuesday marks <a href="https://worldvegetarianday.navs-online.org/about/about-wvd/">World Vegetarian Day</a>, an annual event to kick off Vegetarian Awareness Month, which ends with World Vegan Day on November 1.Foer had his own long history with on-again off-again vegetarianism, which prompted him to write his 2009 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer-ebook/dp/B00390BE7G">"Eating Animals,"</a> a look into <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/books/20book.html">what goes on in factory farming</a> and what meat means in Foer's own family. But this time around, Foer isn't looking into vegetarianism in terms of animal rights, farmers' rights, or health: He's looking at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/giving-up-beef-reduce-carbon-footprint-more-than-cars">how it affects climate change</a>.According to several recent studies, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth">single best thing</a> people can do to fight climate change is to avoid eating animal products, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49238749">especially beef and lamb</a>.Foer's book comes out at a time when both vegetarianism and climate change are being <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-considering-meat-tax-fight-climate-change-2019-9">hotly debated</a>. Meat-alternative companies like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/impossible-foods-ceo-slams-rivals-awful-products-2019-9">Impossible Foods</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/is-beyond-meat-healthy-nutritionists-say-yes-on-occasion-2019-6">Beyond Meat</a> have become massively popular among, even among avowed carnivores.And last month, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/9/20/20876143/climate-strike-2019-september-20-crowd-estimate">Global Climate Strike</a> drew an estimated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/27/climate-crisis-6-million-people-join-latest-wave-of-worldwide-protests">6 million</a> to protest inaction against climate change. Its biggest activist, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greta-thunberg-bio-climate-change-activist-2019-9">Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg</a> (herself a vegan), chastised world leaders during the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-paid-a-visit-to-the-un-climate-action-summit-2019-9">UN Climate Action summit</a>. Foer is all for these trends, but says they're still not effective enough to prevent climate change from causing irreversible harm.Foer spoke with Business Insider over the phone about daily habits, collective action, and the turning point in the fight against climate change.The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.De Luce: Why did you call your book "We Are the Weather?"Foer: Because I was thinking about collective change, trying to close the conceptual distance between ourselves, both the problems of climate change and the solutions to climate change, and to create a reminder that what we do will determine the fate of the planet - and we have to do it together.De Luce: How is "We Are the Weather" different from your 2009 book "Eating Animals"?Foer: With "Eating Animals," I wanted to write a book about eating animals, about industrial farming and more broadly - although there's hardly anything more broad than that, given 90% of the animals you eat come from industrial farms - with the question of eating meat, which is something I've wrestled with since I was a kid.With this book, I had no intention of writing about that subject at all. I just wanted to write about climate change, what we as individuals can do. Like most people, I accepted the science. There are very, very few Americans who don't accept the science anymore, about 9%. I accept the science, and I cared about the implications of the science. That's not a liberal value, it's not an urban value, it's just an American (and I would say, fundamentally human) value. Most people in this country, like the overwhelming majority, care and want to do something. And we have different ideas about what it is that we should do or the government should do.I had all the knowledge that was necessary and I had all the concern that was necessary, and I wasn't doing much of anything at all. And worse, my carbon footprint is probably significantly larger than that of the average science denier. But I felt self-satisfaction in our virtuousness in just knowing. Knowing that it was happening, or saying the right things at dinner parties, or making the right posters for marches. And it just became intolerable at some point. So I decided to figure out what I was capable of, in the sense of what I could do that mattered in the world, but also what I was capable of, in the sense of what my own limits are. Because there's a lot of things I could do that would be great, that if I'm being honest I know I'm not going to do. De Luce: Why is there such a gulf between caring about the planet and doing something to save it?Foer: We've had so much emphasis on feeling, sometimes at the expense of doing. It's necessary as much as possible to keep bringing the focus back to what effect we're having, whether it's through our individual choices or through advocating for systemic change. De Luce: In your book, you compare climate change to the Second World War, saying that both are conflicts happening "over there," not here.Foer: I think for most people, and again I think this has nothing to do with your political alignment, it feels vague and distant, "over there" both in the sense of geographic distance, but also "over there" chronologically, like it's going to be in the future that it happens. It's very, very hard to feel its full presence now, in our lives, both the effects of climate change, but also the solutions to climate change, feel "over there" to us. With the fossil fuels industry, or China, or India and Brazil, as if it weren't happening to us now, and as if there were nothing we could do about it. De Luce: Did anything specific prompt you to write your newest book?<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">AmazonFoer's latest book, "We Are the Weather."</div></div></div>Foer: When kids in the other room are horsing around, you can sort of, you know, ignore it and keep doing what you're doing, paying bills or opening mail, whatever it is - then one of them hits the other, and then, OK, I can still ignore it. Then something breaks, let's say, then you just say, "Enough. Enough. I have to go deal with this." So I had that, except that I was both the adult and the kid. I had enough of hearing myself say, "Hey, somebody's gotta do something" while not doing something. De Luce: You talk about how you skip animal products for breakfast and lunch. How did you decide that was the best way to reduce your meat consumption?Foer: That's just based in the most contemporary science, which tells us that while people who live in malnourished parts of the world could afford to eat a little bit more meat and dairy, people who live in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe have to reduce their meat consumption by 90%, and their dairy by 60%. That's a hard thing to keep track of. I don't want to have a calculator with me while I'm eating, and I don't want to keep a diary of all my meals, so I was just trying to think for myself of one strategy to approach the science, in necessary numbers. That seemed like a good strategy for me. I met someone the other day who said, "Me and my son have this huge breakfast every morning with eggs and bacon, and I don't know how I'm going to do what you're suggesting." And I said, "Well, don't do what I'm suggesting. If that's the meal that really matters, do that, and maybe you could find ways for lunch and dinner to do quite a bit less." I think most people don't want to think of themselves as science deniers. So we know what the science is. In terms of the best way to engage with it, that can be a very personal decision. I think for most people, dinner tends to be the meal that's far and away the most important, both in terms of culinary pleasure, but also in terms of cultural functions and social functions.I think there are ways to actually make eating even better. But it would be dishonest to pretend that it wouldn't require effort and relearning, and, at least in the beginning, devoting more time and planning into eating than we're used to.De Luce: What do you think of plant-based burgers like the Impossible Burger or Beyond Burger?Foer: I think they're great, and serve a very, very important function. One in three Americans eats meat every single day at a fast food restaurant, and that would be a very, very easy way to eat less meat. I get that we can't replace a steak right now, I get it that we can't replace a lot of culturally significant meat foods, but a Whopper? And Impossible Whopper is every bit as good as a Whopper, and it requires 99% less water, 93% less land, and it produces 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions. It would just be a wonderful place to start, and I think that these companies are new. And they're really quite good. Within a couple years, it's not only that they will be as good as animal meat, they will be better. They'll just taste better. I had one of those [meat alternatives], and someone asked me, "Was it good?" I mean, it tasted what it was supposed to taste like. We'd live on a much better planet if we just moved away from fast food completely.De Luce: You write about how saving the planet is like being part of a wave at a baseball game, that little deeds add up to big actions. Why is that so important?Foer: I was just thinking about how collective action works, and the role we can play as individuals in solving these global problems. Individuals themselves cannot solve climate change. We absolutely need to have systemic change and legislative change. That kind of change just isn't coming. It's not coming. Look at our leaders. I don't even just mean [President Donald] Trump. We are not going to have the kind of aggressive legislation that we need unless something else changes. Marches are not doing it - as good as marches are, and I attend the marches, and my kids attend the marches, and everybody should attend the marches - but I think we ought to start withholding our money from the most destructive industries, and showing the force of our habits, our daily decisions.I've met so many farmers who say, "I don't grow what I want to grow, I grow what people want to eat, what they buy." Ninety-one percent of the Amazonian deforestation is because of animal agriculture. If we eat less beef there will be less deforestation in the Amazon. If we had a boycott of beef, we could protect the Amazon.But most importantly, as we change our habits, we push corporations to have some practices that will make it easier for us to make good decisions. There would be a virtuous cycle in that way, a reinforcing cycle.The Beyond Burger at McDonald's and Burger King is a perfect example. Corporations didn't decide they wanted to play a part in solving climate change. People said, "Hey, we wanna play a part. We wanna eat something different." Ninety percent of people who buy Beyond Burgers in supermarkets are meat eaters. It's not just vegetarians. People who recognize that we need to eat less meat. So as we ask for it, corporations make more of it, which makes it easier for us to make environmentally conscious decisions, which makes it easier for corporations and governments to practice a kind of environmental consciousness. De Luce: You discuss how the Second World War, among many conflicts, captivate us because they make great stories, but not climate change. Why doesn't climate change make for a good story?Foer: It's a hard story to tell, because it's so complicated. It has so many different pieces and components, and the non-scientists, the lay person, could explain what Amazonian deforestation has to do with deforestation, has to do with the melting ice sheets, has to do with the wildfires in California, has to do with Syria, but it's not easy.It's not a clean story. There's no iconic villains, there's no iconic heroes, and it feels far away, maybe most importantly. We need to strive to find new ways to talk about it, and also maybe not wait for some story that's going to move us to tears but instead create norms that help us do the right thing, even when we're not feeling it.De Luce: How do you feel about Greta Thunberg's activism? She seems to be the closest thing to a face the climate change movement has.Foer: I think she's wonderful. I think there is an awful lot of pressure on her now, and young people generally, in a way that feels to me somewhat unfair. It's grossly unfair, the pressure we're putting on kids. I worry that the affection for Greta Thunberg can accidentally relieve our own responsibility to do something. We see that she's doing so much, and we see that she's speaking on our behalf. What we need is for her inspiration, which is so powerful, to inspire not to follow her, but to inspire us to act.De Luce: Do you feel like this is the most anyone has cared about this issue? Is this a turning point?Foer: I do. Without a doubt, it's the most that we've cared. It can be demonstrated in polls. It shows in this critical moment where caring is starting to shape into behavior. That's the step that's necessary. It's not enough to know the right things and to feel the right things. We have to do the right things, and I think that now, we're beginning to, and I imagine once that process is really set in motion, it will trip into something quite parabolic.De Luce: What might you say to people who don't believe in climate change?Foer: To be honest, I don't even think they're worth talking to right now. Anybody who doesn't believe the science is willfully not believing the science. If you want to wake up somebody who's asleep, you can pinch their arm, or poke their nose, but you can't wake up somebody who's pretending to be asleep. People who deny the science are pretending. They're not our problem. There's very few of them left. The real problem is people who accept the science but don't do anything about it.De Luce: Do you have hope for the future?Foer: I have cautious hope. We're facing something that's unbelievably large and scary, and will require unprecedented mobilization, but what's the alternative?It's just the science. It's not an opinion, it's not advice. If people care about the planet and accept science, we have to. We have no choice. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/veggie-burger-taste-test-burger-king-impossible-burger-beyond-meat-2019-9">We compared 13 veggie burgers and Burger King's Impossible Burger was the only one that stood out</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

'It's a hard story to tell': Jonathan Safran Foer on how Greta Thunberg, the Impossible Burger, and meatless breakfasts are altering the climate-change narrative for the better

You Searched For "dairy farmers protest rcep" and got 3 results

The 10 most important things in the world right now

Dina Spector

Goldman Sachs email shows partner warned against trying to 'milk' Libya in 2008

Ben Moshinsky

'It's a hard story to tell': Jonathan Safran Foer on how Greta Thunberg, the Impossible Burger, and meatless breakfasts are altering the climate-change narrative for the better

Ivan De Luce